She's No Beauty Queen

"Lily, you really can't do this. Whatever happened with your twin is not your responsibility. You still have your entire life ahead of you. Don't throw it away on the off-chance this works," Mark said with a pained expression.

Lily was surprised to hear that coming from him. Here she thought he would do anything to help his boss.

"You won't change my mind," she sniffed before turning to Eddie. "Are you going to help me or not? Because I'll do this by myself if necessary and find someone else to send the tracking signals to."

He could see she wasn't going to back down from this and acquiesced reluctantly. "Fine. But you're getting trackers put all over you so there isn't a chance of us missing your signal. I'm sure the guy I hired knows where to get some if he doesn't own any already but it might take a day or two to get a hold of them.

"Until then you're not allowed to stray more than five feet from Mark. Got it? I won't put you at more risk than absolutely necessary. And I'm coming with you to all of your events too to keep an eye on things."

Lily frowned. "I thought you were supposed to keep your relationship a secret."

Eddie rubbed his forehead tiredly. "That's why I won't be escorting you. As your manager Mark has that right. Believe it or not, I actually did get an invitation to that cocktail party tonight because of who I am. Everybody wants me as a sponsor.

"Tomorrow's event is a 5k run supporting epilepsy research. Spots are still open so all I have to do is get two for the both of us and we'll run near you to make sure nothing happens. It's up in San Francisco so I don't think that man would drive all the way up there anyway."

It was about a two hour drive from Monterey to San Francisco. That would be pushing it a little in terms of dedication but crazy people couldn't be reasoned with. He might show up anyway.

"If you're coming with us tonight you should probably go get ready now," Lily pointed out.

Eddie looked down at the pajamas he was wearing. "…right. I'll go do that. See you there."

Mark was quiet for most of the drive but eventually he did say something and sounded almost angry. "Why are you always so reckless? You haven't changed at all."

Lily's brow furrowed. Was he talking about the way she was in high school? She supposed the fights she used to get into could be considered reckless but she never started them! Though this time diving headfirst into danger had definitely been her idea…

"So what? I am who I am and I won't apologize for that, especially not to the likes of you."

"The likes of me?" Mark asked flatly.

She had been annoyed with him too many times and ended up blurting her grievances by accident. "Yeah, someone spineless without any real convictions! You flip flop between your work personality and whatever else there is to you way too easily. Someone that doesn't care about anything could never understand where I'm coming from."

"I care about things! I care about your safety and getting closure for Edward one way or another."

Lily sighed. He was hopeless.

"But both of those things benefit you in some way. You'd feel guilty if I got hurt because you're the one who recruited me to pose as Angel and Eddie's the one signing your paycheck. Can you name three things you care about that aren't directly related to work?"

Mark went silent. The wheels in his head were obviously turning but he was coming up blank. That's what she thought.

"Look, Mark. I don't think you're a bad person but you're a chameleon. You change your words and actions depending on what will benefit you most in any given situation. Don't think I haven't noticed you only talk to me about the stuff I like to calm me down so I don't jeopardize the mission.

"You don't have a speck of passion in you so you're not qualified to judge me for caring too much about something, even if I am acting recklessly. You aren't my friend so stop pretending like you want what's best for me. You're my handler, here to keep me in line as I play a ridiculous game of dress up. That's it," Lily finished matter-of-factly.

Perhaps she was being too harsh but she couldn't stand hypocrites. A chameleon pretending to care crossed her bottom line.

She wasn't stupid. She had managed to put the pieces of Mark's behavior together after having more time to think about it yesterday. The only reason she hadn't said anything before now was that there hadn't been a reason to.

Guilt crept into her heart when she noticed he looked like he had been slapped but he only looked like that because he knew she was right. He didn't have a comeback because he couldn't deny the truth.

The rest of the car ride was fairly awkward after that. He stiffly offered his arm as they got out of the car and closed himself off even further, going into manager mode.

Mark didn't let Lily drink at all but he refused to drink on her behalf too, claiming he was the designated driver. That didn't make sense. If he didn't want to ruffle any feathers wouldn't it be more prudent to take the glasses people kept offering her?

She could drive them home since she wasn't drinking anything. He was using her as an excuse so he wouldn't have to drink. Did he take medications that didn't go well with alcohol too or did he simply not like it?

She shouldn't care one way or another. She had just drawn a line between them after all.